China: Snowstorm ruins Lunar New Year trips for millions

Blizzards and freezing rain have disrupted transportation across much of China as millions of people travel for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Hundreds of plane and train services have been canceled and motorists have been stranded on icy highways for days.

The holiday marks the beginning of China’s “largest human migration of the year,” when millions of people travel to their homelands.

Officials expect 480 million people to travel during Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival. The volume increased by 40% compared to the previous year.

Chinese meteorological authorities have warned of the worst winter weather since 2008. Central China, including provinces such as Hebei, Hubei and Anhui, is bearing the brunt of the freezing conditions.

Chinese people said on social media that the bitter cold had ruined their plans to reunite with their families. They posted photos of themselves stranded on trains and stations with downed power lines.

Lunar New Year is Saturday, February 10th.

“When the Spring Festival coincided with a snowstorm: three years ago, residents were unable to leave Wuhan.” [because of the Covid-19 outbreak]. 3 years later, we can’t go in there,” according to a post on X (previously known as Twitter), where an They posted a video showing a packed station being too crowded to move.

Some users thanked those who braved the cold to deliver food and hot water to commuters stranded on icy roads. One video showed a woman in Xiantao, Hubei province, using a pulley system to refill water bottles for people stranded on a highway. “You just put the bottle in your cart and you’re good to go. You don’t have to pay,” she said.

Approximately 255 cities across the country have days when the average daily temperature is below 0℃, significantly higher than usual.

Approximately 100 expressway toll plazas in Anhui province are closed to vehicles due to ice. On Monday, state broadcaster CCTV reported that 4,000 vehicles were stranded on the roads.

One person was killed and 13 others injured when the roof of a local market collapsed due to heavy snowfall in a city in Hunan province on Monday.

China’s central government has announced that it will spend 141 million yuan ($20 million, £15.6 million) in funding for emergency snow removal and related works on highways in 11 provinces, CCTV reported.

Officials lifted the most severe blizzard warning on Wednesday, with the icy weather expected to ease quickly. Snow will continue in southern and central China, but the weather is expected to warm up by Friday, reports said.